Meadowbrook High School HIV rumor deemed false

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WTVR) — Meadowbrook High School has been the subject of scrutiny in the past 24 hours. A screenshot that depicts a news story has gone viral around Chesterfield on social media.

The headline of the screenshot reads: “67 local students diagnosed with HIV, other STIs.”

Students and parents went to social media asking about the phenomenon:

😷😷 It sickens me to hear this news that HIV has spread this 70 kids at Meadowbrook. Its high school!!

“I am not aware of such a situation. Overall, this sounds like a fairly implausible scenario,” Dr. Parham Jaberi, M.D., M.P.H., the director of the Chesterfield Health District, said in a statement. “We often hear of outbreaks of flu, norovirus, pertussis or other illnesses that can be transmitted from one ill individual to multiple others in a short amount of time through droplet transmission or infectious particles via the stool. HIV transmission as you know does not occur in the same way. Thus an outbreak of HIV, particularly in a school setting, would be quite unusual.”

It can also be noted that due to snow, students at Meadowbrook High School were only in school Monday this week.

Tim Bullis, director of community relations at Chesterfield County Public Schools, said there have not been any blood drives at Meadowbrook High School within the last two weeks. The source of this screenshot is still unknown.

2 comments

gregory

Rob

This is disgusting! Such rumors are not a joke and should not be taken lightly by school administrators. The culprit(s) should be permanently expelled from all Chesterfield County Schools. Given the widespread stigma about HIV – especially in states like Virginia – this behavior should be considered a form of terrorism. Clearly, the offender’s intent was to create panic or fear among a group of people.